Impact & Benefits of Blogs and Wikis in the Business World

We use words like blogs and wikis very often, yet we rarely take the time to examine them on a deeper level. Over a period of time, many of these terms have started to deviate from their real meaning primarily because people decided to take liberties with the content of blogs and wikis. While some were aiming to inculcate creativity, others were eyeing to bag attention. Realizing that blogs and wikis are key in the world of business, it is important to understand their true meaning and how they should be leveraged. Furthermore, we will see how any business can actually benefit from these platforms.

What are Blogs

The word “Blog” is derived from Web Log, which is basically journals that users leave on the website, and these posts are displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs can take several different forms - online diaries, travel logs, reports, and news columns. They should be supported by robust images, infographics and videos.

Blog posts should also contain links that lead to other sites or other posts on the same site. Since the main purpose of a blog is to examine a particular issue, it is key to supply reference links that support the thesis. For serious blogs, link sources need to be valid and trustworthy. If the links are not trustworthy, the post won’ be authoritative and fail to make an impact. Finally, blogs need to be thought provoking, inspire discussion and draw attention. So, instead of just presenting plain facts, it is a better idea to add your own opinion and possible implications.

What are Wikis

Much like a blog, a wiki is also text-based content that serves the purpose of providing information. Unlike blogs, wikis can be edited by anyone who has access permission, whereas blogs are rarely altered after they go live. Wikis are shared authorship models of information and primarily provide updated information. Although wikis can have public access but they can be restricted to a company as well. One of the most famous types of a wiki is Wikipedia. It has been observed that though Wikipedia comprises a lot of information on varied topics, it is still not regarded as a valid source as it allows anyone to implement changes.

This open-source platform has assumed prominence in the past few years and authors struggle to maintain its validity, hence provide reliable links in the reference section. Wikis are great for collaborative work and it is a good way to keep a company’s knowledge readily available for training new employees. The term “wiki” comes from wiki wiki, which in Hawaiian means “quick.” Thus the primary goal of wikis is to provide users with a quick and easy source of information. It can also be considered as a swift way to increase the current knowledge base.

How Blogs and Wikis Impact Businesses

Now let’s see how blogs and wikis can benefit an enterprise. Since blogs are treated as valid means of carrying out communication, hence business owners can use it to address the concerns of users or customers. Through blogs, companies and employees can share their experiences, which can also serve as a way of brand promotion. A company can use blogs to display their commitment towards helping users by writing quality tutorials, or tips and tricks posts that are related to your niche. Another form of a blog can be product reviews and comparisons that can benefit the users. One of the key use of blogs is to boost the ranking of your website and increase its visibility. If you organize your posts so that they contain certain keywords you wish to rank for, you can optimize your content to rank for particular search queries.

You also need to write quality content and use topic-related keywords that search engines expect to see in the environment of the selected keyword. Finally, with good content, you increase the chances of being featured in another blog on a different site. When more links lead to your website, the user traffic increases and help in brand visibility.

Corporate wikis are handy in a different sense. These are collaborative tools that allow teams enhanced flexibility and a secure place for storing documents. You can use them to manage meeting notes, team agendas, dates and deadlines in company calendars. It is an easy way to distribute updates as they support data types like spreadsheets, PDF and PowerPoint. Similar to a blog, you can have wiki communities and use wikis as an informative tool for your consumers as well. They can be used for creating guides, answering FAQ and for sharing an insight into your product or services. Wikis are frequently updated and can be designed using a knowledge base software.

The Parting Words

Now that you know how both blogs and wikis can be used to benefit your business, you can act accordingly. Both are useful tools for communicating and can strengthen business growth. Hence, they should not be overlooked and leveraged to their full potential.

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